UTICA, N.Y. – The Manhattanville College women's hockey team saw their 2023-24 season come to an end on Saturday night as the third-seeded Valiants were defeated by second-seeded and No. 14 nationally-ranked Utica 5-1 in the semifinals of the UCHC Women's Championship Tournament. The Valiants end the year 13-12-2 overall.

Making the trip to Utica for the third-straight year to take on the Pioneers in the UCHC Semis, the Valiants were unable to replicate their success up north from 2022 when they defeated Utica to advance to the championship game. Manhattanville was outshot 30-15 in the contest and were unable to generate enough strong looks in the offensive zone to match the Pioneers' explosive offense that led the UCHC in scoring by a comfortable margin this year.

A fairly-even first period saw the Pioneers score the opening goal at 15:54 off the stick of Cortney Staniszewski from Autumn Mish and Ava Suda. Utica held a 9-6 shot advantage across the opening 20 minutes, but the Valiants were not without their opportunities. A pair of minor Pioneer penalties had the Valiants with the skater advantage for a consecutive 3:47, but Utica successfully held the Valiants without a shot despite the numbers against their favor. The Valiants also looked to have scored the opening goal of the contest as Manhattanville had a 2-on-1 rush entering the Utica zone. Virginia Birnie's (Ontario, Canada/Rosethay Netherwood School) crossing attempt was tipped into the air by a Utica defender and was knocked out of the air into the net by Lindsay Reyes (Chino Hills, Calif./SUNY Cortland), but the goal was immediately waved off for a high stick. Outside of the goal that wasn't, the Valiants were unable to beat Angela Hawthorne in the opening 20 minutes.

The Pioneers were able to take control in the second, limiting the Valiants to just two shots on net while scoring twice. Utica collected tallies from Erica Sloan at 6:33 and Tess Barrett at 13:36.

Hoping to mount a comeback, the Valiants got on the board 5:48 into the third period from their leading playmaker Gabrielle Cox (Niverville, NY/Ichabod Crane High School). The graduate forward notched her 25^th goal of the season, the 75^th of her Valiant career, from Erin Flaherty (Rockland, Mass./Canterbury School) and Molly Sances (Billerica, Mass./Billerica Memorial).

With over 14 minutes still to play, there was plenty of time for Manhattanville to fight their way back. However, the Pioneer defense made sure to make that effort difficult as the Valiants were limited fto just four more shots over the remainder of play following Cox's goal. It remained a two score game until 17:36 into the period when Abby Lillis put the home team back up by three, followed by a Carolyn Whitney insurance goal 1:20 later to put the game out of reach.

In her final career game occupying the Manhattanville crease, graduate netminder Franny Gerardi (Yonkers, N.Y./Selects Academy) finished with 25 saves. Gerardi finishes as one of the greatest goaltenders in program history, holding the Valiant records for career, season and single-game saves in addition to career minutes in her 75 games wearing the Manhattanville jersey and bucket.

Cox led the Valiants with three total shots on net in the game. Four different players—Annie Niedermier (Calgary, Alberta, Canada/Athol Murray College of Notre Dame), Catrina Chinetti (Hyde Park, Mass./Boston Latin Academy), Charlotte Stanwood (West Vancouver, B.C./Penticton Secondary) and Taylor Willoughby (Camrose, Alberta, Canada/John Maland)—finished with two shots each.

The Pioneers won the faceoff battle 30-23. Grace Felicio (Holden, Mass./Wachusett Regional) was the top Valiant on the draw with nine victories.

Manhattanville's power play finished 0-for-2 on the night, being held without a shot. The Pioneers went 2-for-4 with two power play tallies.
 
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